New musick

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New musick is a loosely defined style of music and series of articles published in the late 1970s by the British magazine Sounds. New musick was originally coined after a meeting organized by Sounds editor Alan Lewis involving music journalists Jane Suck, Sandy Robertson and Jon Savage in October 1977. The meeting resulted in the group deciding to use "New Musick" as a marketing term for issues in November and December 1977, similar to "new wave", which had previously been used for a series of Sounds articles entitled "Images of the New Wave". The term has been described by Savage as an early label for "post-punk" as well as a subsection of the genre.

Contents

New musick was used as a term to describe several experimental, avant-garde and progressive developments being made in punk rock. Drawing influences from disco, dub, reggae, krautrock and electronic music, particularly the use of synthesizers. In November 1977, Sounds published their first issue on new musick which included editorials by Jane Suck and Jon Savage. Writers Simon Reynolds, David Buckley, David Wilkinson, Mimi Haddon and Theo Cateforis retrospectively cited Savage's editorial as the starting point for "post-punk" as a musical genre. The editorial was followed by several new musick articles by other Sounds writers, including Suck, Robertson, Vivien Goldman, Davitt Sigerson, Dave Fudger and Steven Lavers.

The British press quickly adopted the label which sparked ideological conflicts among music critics and the British punk scene regarding new musick undermining the authenticity of the punk ideology. Much of the pushback was rooted in the strong hostility the punk scene held toward electronic music, disco, art and progressive rock, resulting in the scene fracturing into several distinct categories such as "power pop," "mod renewal," "futurist," and "new punk" (or "real punk"). By the end of the decade, new musick was replaced by "new wave" and "post-punk" interchangeably in the UK.

Etymology

Jon Savage's 1977 Sounds editorial "New Musick" outlined a new experimental direction in punk. Jon Savage 1kpx jn09 crop.jpg
Jon Savage's 1977 Sounds editorial "New Musick" outlined a new experimental direction in punk.

On 26 November 1977, Sounds magazine published an issue entitled "New Musick", the front cover was done by Steven Lavers with editorials by music journalists Jane Suck and Jon Savage. Savage wrote a piece on an emerging scene and style of music known as "new musick", suggesting that punk rock was becoming stagnant and evolving into new, more experimental forms, which he noted as "post punk projections". [1] His editorial stated "New Musick is too many cigarettes, too much depression and too little heart." Savage then remarked: [2]

It probably all began with Jazz or in the BBC Workshop, but I prefer to think it all stemmed from the mesmerising Farfisa organ sound of ? and the Mysterians '96 Tears'. 'That' was pure heartbreak, 'this' — Kraftwerk, Bowie, Eno, Space — is hearts stuck together with sellotape. It's the white equivalent of dub (obligatory hallucogenic reggae record: Althea & Donna's 'Up Town Top Ranking')

Furthermore, this music’s purportedly “ice cold” character, and [Simon] Reynolds’ references to technology evoke the imagined bleakness that lay beyond the Iron Curtain, and reinforces stereotypes about people from Germany and their alleged rigid, robotic disposition. This would also explain the inclusion of the German group Kraftwerk in Savage’s New Musick editorial, alongside Throbbing Gristle and Siouxsie and the Banshees, who were both from the UK. The Nazi iconography used by Siouxsie and the Banshees in particular may too have justified Savage’s decision to include them in the New Musick section.

— Mimi Haddon (March 30, 2020) [3]

He described the style as exhibiting "more overt reggae/dub influence", sounding "the same/manufactured in a factory," and characterized Subway Sect, the Prefects, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Slits, and Wire as exploring "harsh urban scrapings/controlled white noise/massively accented drumming". [4] He mentioned acts such as Pere Ubu,Throbbing Gristle and Devo, and stated new musick to be thought of as "texture". He clarified "[new] musick isn't muzak", while citing Robert Fripp and Brian Eno's "Swastika Girls" (1973). The Velvet Underground along with Lou Reed, John Cale and Nico were noted as precursors and influences accompanied by a verse from "Gideon's Bible" (1970). [5] He described the movement as "Clean teen beat groups cleaning up and minting millions from where the Groovies' left off and starting where the Jam got boring. Synthemesc nouveau pop". [2] [6]

Music journalists Simon Reynolds, David Buckley, David Wilkinson, [7] and Theo Cateforis retrospectively cited Savage's editorial as the starting point for post-punk as a musical genre. [8] During the late 1970s, the terms "new musick", "new wave" and "post-punk" would all be used interchangeably by British music publications. Additionally, the subgenre "cold wave" would also be coined in the November 1977 Sounds "New Musick" article, with members of Kraftwerk, Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, being displayed on the front cover. [9]

Writer Mimi Haddon suggested the term "New Musick" may have referred to the division of Germany into East and West and that the emphasis on "all things German in opposition to “American and rock ‘n’ roll,” that Reynolds identifies may also have inspired the quasi-Germanic spelling of “Musick,” which resembles the German word Musik, as well as the quasi-Germanic capitalization of the words." [10]

Characteristics and influences

Musical style

David Bowie performing as "The Thin White Duke" at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, 26 February 1976 The Thin White Duke 76.jpg
David Bowie performing as "The Thin White Duke" at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, 26 February 1976

Music critic Simon Reynolds regarded "new musick" as denoting its own musical style, which he defined as the "industrial/dystopian science-fiction side of post-punk". [11] While Savage suggested new musick could be thought of as a subsection of post-punk. [12] Writer Matthew Worley labelled new musick a soundtrack to "the transition from mid-1970s anger to late '70s alienation". [13] Mimi Haddon describes the term as encompassing the early British punk scene’s interest in Europe along with contemporary German music genres and aesthetics, [14] stating: [15]

New Musick in 1977, then, seems to have signified a messy, slightly xenophobic amalgam of the Third Reich, Eastern Bloc chic and Kosmische Musik, united under an image of clichéd Germanic severity, austerity, and technophilia. Importantly, some of the kinds of associations conjured by the term New Musick have endured and become part of post-punk’s often unspoken criteria, especially those of coldness, harshness, and darkness.

New musick is primarily defined by an emphasis on electronic music, particularly the use of synthesizers. [16] [17] [18] [19] Along with influences lifted from krautrock, reggae, dub and disco, as well as Giorgio Moroder, [20] David Bowie's Berlin Trilogy and Brian Eno's solo albums, both artists who would briefly be labelled "new musick". [12] [21] [10] [22] Buckley stated new musick was "the first wave of music influenced by Kraftwerk", and regarded "The Model" as being "New Musick, music for a post-industrial computer age, music for the future". [23] [24]

Brian Eno on AVRO's television program TopPop, April 1974 Brian Eno - TopPop 1974 08.png
Brian Eno on AVRO's television program TopPop , April 1974

Writers Sean Albiez and David Pattie stated new musick encompassed "the experimenters, avant-garde stylists and post-punk progressives", as well as "Despite the undoubted physicality and emotional content of many New Musick artists, Sounds presented its chosen artists as somehow 'colder' than punk". [21] [25] The style was primarily characterized by "cold" and "bleakness". [26] [21] In January 1978, Kris Needs of ZigZag magazine interviewed Brian Eno and noted "this new Ice Cold Music of the Future craze in Sounds" to describe his music, Eno replied: [27] [28]

I know. I didn't agree with that. I didn't think it was ice cold [laughs]. You see, it doesn't derive from that bluesy feel, and people are so used to that, you know, the whole tradition of The Stones, that kind of it's-all-felt kind of movement, and I don't drive from that very much but nonetheless I don't think that what results is therefore cold, it doesn't have that particular kind of warmth...

Needs would state "Bowie's lumped in it too, and you've linked with Bowie after the last two albums..." (referring to the Berlin Trilogy), with Eno replying "Yes, I'm a bit fed up of it... I'm a bit annoyed at the moment, well not annoyed, just... I'm fed up with myself a bit, that's what it is really." [27] [12]

Visual style

Writer Paul Lester noted the visual fashion style and aesthetic of some acts such as Joy Division, Throbbing Gristle and Wire as a "non-image" along with "startingly and definitely modern", as well as linking it to being a reaction to other punk bands who still had "long hair" and that "Rolling Stones look". [18]

Background

In September 1977, Jon Savage would be attacked by bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel of the Stranglers following the release of his negative review of the band's studio album No More Heroes. [29] [30] [31] In which Savage wrote, "Oh, you guessed: I don't like the album. I've tried very hard [really: for all the 'right' reasons] but I still think it sucks." He stated: [32]

I didn't have much of a sense of my gay identity at the time, nor did Jane, but it dictated our response to the increased laddism of punk, which we abhorred. There were endless arguments in Sounds editorial meetings about their objectification of Debbie Harry. I hated and still do the bully-boy aspect of punk, which began to emerge later in 1977. The Clash fell victim to it in a big way.

In England's Dreaming, Savage writes the UK punk scene was divided into "arties" and "social realists", stating "The arties had a continued interest in experimentation; the social realists talked about building a 'brick wall' and extolled the virtues of Punk's latest sensation, the ur-Punk Sham 69". [33]

History

Origins

Siouxsie Sioux on the front cover of Sounds issue on New Musick in 1978 as "The Ice Queen". NewMusickTheIceQueen.jpg
Siouxsie Sioux on the front cover of Sounds issue on New Musick in 1978 as "The Ice Queen".

Around the summer of 1977, according to Simon Reynolds, "punk had become a parody of itself". [34] By October, writers and editors at Sounds echoed similar sentiments, with Savage noting the release of the Sex Pistols' "Holidays in the Sun" signaled that the "death knells were already there", he stated: "We came up with this idea of doing a couple of issues of Sounds around tribal electronic synthetic cut-up music. I think Vivien Goldman had a lot to do with it, and so did Dave Fudger, who were both senior editors on Sounds at the time". [35] [36] Savage remarked: [37]

In late October, Sounds editor Alan Lewis brought Sandy, Jane and myself into a meeting [...] The result was 'New Musick', two weeks of features at the end of October and the beginning of November 1977. Vivien Goldman wrote about Siouxsie and dub reggae. Davitt Sigerson wrote about disco. Steven Lavers wrote about Kraftwerk. Sandy wrote about Throbbing Gristle. Jane and I wrote the editorials, and I cobbled together a couple of short articles about Devo and The Residents, mostly taken from Search And Destroy.

David Bowie and Iggy Pop, while in Berlin, recorded art rock albums, inspired by German krautrock Ivan Kral, David Bowie and Iggy Pop by Ivan Kral.jpg
David Bowie and Iggy Pop, while in Berlin, recorded art rock albums, inspired by German krautrock

Savage stated Lewis had requested them to come up with an "Images of the New Wave" part 3, which had been a previous series of Sounds articles that used the term "new wave" as a marketing trend. [12] He cited "Magic Fly" by Space (1977) and "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer (produced by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte) as singles both him and Jane Suck were "obsessed" with. He stated they "made all of us punk rock snobs say 'Oh, my god, disco is fantastic', you know, electronics are the way forward". [35] Savage noted that "punk was old hat" and Sounds writers collectively came up with the idea to celebrate "the new electronic and futuristic music that seemed much more interesting than old pub rockers banging out three chords". [12] [22] The single "Magic Fly" would be mentioned on Savage's first editorial on new musick in November 1977.

Writer David Buckley states that synthesizers and electronics were initially seen as "punk rock nightmares", with Joe Strummer of the Clash stating on television that the band had no synthesizers. [35] However, this idea later changed, with Buckley arguing that it was Bowie's Berlin Trilogy, particularly the albums Low and Heroes , that altered the punk scene's negative perception of electronic music. He added, "Sounds was the first British music weekly to realize that punk was exhausted and a dead end". [35] Reynolds argued Bowie's Berlin Trilogy along with Iggy Pop's The Idiot, [10] "signaled a shift away from America and rock ‘n’ roll toward Europe and a cool, controlled sound modelled on the Teutonic “motorik” rhythms of Kraftwerk and Neu!—a sound in which synthesizers played as much of a role as guitars". [38] He would also describe Brian Eno's solo albums as "proto-New Wave", and that he became "one of the defining producers" of the post-punk era. [39]

Reynolds cited punk rock in the UK as splintering into several different subgenres between 1977 and 1978, with writer Matthew Worley stating that the scene had fractured into various "often competing versions of punk’s creation myth and alternate visions of ‘where to now.’" Followed by, "The music press looked to determine new categorizations, some now all but forgotten: ‘new musick,’ ‘power pop,’ ‘mod renewal,’ ‘futurist,’ and ‘new punk.’" [40] Additionally, he labelled new musick "the transition from mid-1970s anger to late '70s alienation". [13]

The Prophet-5, one of the first polyphonic synthesizers. It was widely used in 1980s synth-pop, along with the Roland Jupiter and Yamaha DX7. Sequential Circuits Prophet 5.jpg
The Prophet-5, one of the first polyphonic synthesizers. It was widely used in 1980s synth-pop, along with the Roland Jupiter and Yamaha DX7.

At the time, there was a feeling of renewed excitement regarding what "new musick" or "post-punk" would entail, with Sounds publishing numerous preemptive editorials on the topic. [11] Bands such as Wire would be labelled "New musick", with the band receiving significant attention in the British press for their broadening of punk rock. In March 1978, ZigZag's Kris Needs would interview the band, stating: [26]

WHEN WIRE came out of the Punk No-man's-land with their strikingly different debut album Pink Flag they seemed one of the hottest hopes for lifting rock out of the latrine it was rapidly digging itself into. Rave reviews and predictions for a bright future (with prospects) were very apparent in the Rock Press.

Guitarist Graham Lewis would state, "We've been called a Punk band, a New Wave band, and now we're a New Musick band". [26] On 20 May 1978, writer Chris Westwood satirized the growing rise of "new musick" and "cold wave" while reviewing a Wire live concert in Record Mirror: "All adjectives have grown stale: cold, weird, psychotic, so have the labels – New Musick, New Schmusic. Cold Wave, blah blah blah, etc. In fact, writing about Wire is almost a cliché in itself these days, so let's just say that Wire are Wire and leave it at that, eh?". He later parodies Savage's 1977 "New Musick" editorial in the review. [41] Additionally, American groups such as the Residents, Devo and MX-80 Sound would also be embraced as "new musick". [42]

Several other British publications such as Smash Hits , Record Mirror , Melody Maker and NME began to use the term "new musick" interchangeably with "post-punk". [43] [44] [45] [41] Some journalists opted for the term "art punk" to describe artists "too sophisticated" and out of step with punk's dogma, though it was sometimes used by critics as a pejorative. [46] Additionally, there were concerns over the authenticity of such bands in relation to a perceived punk ideology. [47]

Criticism

13 May 1978 Sounds magazine front cover with David Thomas of Pere Ubu, labelled "The Orson Welles of New Musick". NewMusickOrsonWelles.jpg
13 May 1978 Sounds magazine front cover with David Thomas of Pere Ubu, labelled "The Orson Welles of New Musick".

Between 1978-79, the British punk scene, particularly in London, was divided by ideological conflicts over whether the progressive and artistic influences being explored in new musick would undermine the authenticity of the punk movement. [47] On 11 February, 1978, British music journalist Chas de Whalley published an article in Sounds criticizing the term "new musick". Mimi Haddon notes his article argued that new musick mirrored the elitism of late-1960s and early-1970s progressive rock, where avoiding commercial songwriting led to rock music that was inaccessible for amateur musicians. De Whalley regarded the "art rock" era as "ten years of snobbery", and offered the term "power pop" as an opposition: [48]

Power Pop is all down to the hooks and the excitement. In that respect even the New Musickites can join the party, providing they promise to leave their library books by the door and laugh and joke with the rest of us lesser mortals at least a time or two. And, you see, it is most ESSENTIAL that they do. No I'm not asking your MX 80 Sounds, your Devos, Pere Ubus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Pop Group or whoever/whatever to iron out their idiosyncracies, prostitute their art or compromise their ideals particularly. I'm just saying that if they refuse to move near kids, country and the world of hit singles, then they'll only be fostering the same kind-of musical elitism that deprived the people of their own medium of expression back in 1967. And, whether you approve of Power Pop terminology or not, you must agree that ten years of snobbery was ten years too many.

Savage retrospectively stated "Chas was not very happy with me, because I was striving ahead with new musick at the time while he was trying to promote power pop, which I thought was shit, and I also hated The Jam." [49]

Haddon stated that the "New Musick category did not go without rebuff", citing ZigZag's Kris Needs stating a few months later that "It was around the time would-be trendsetters were trying to poleaxe Punk/New Wave with a New Musick elbow – a craze which kept its momentum for about a week before the much more accessible Power Pop wimped in". [15] [26] Similarly, Sounds writer Garry Bushell argued "New Punk" artists (later known as "Oi!" [50] ) such as the Angelic Upstarts had more relevance than any of the "New Musick". [51] Bushell would be an early supporter of Oi! as a reaction to the artistic intellectualization of punk, with "new punk" followers expressing appreciation for his support of "real kids" bands and his refusal to be an "intellectual snob". [50] Labels such as "real punk" would be used interchangeably with "new punk" and later "Oi!". [52] [4]

Writers Sean Albiez and David Pattie retrospectively stated that new musick brought into question "enduring critical debates over authenticity and originality" in rock music. They cited the 1960s British Invasion as previously having explored similar debates in the media in regards to "originality in presenting a creative response to the blues that did not seek to be 'authentic'". [21]

By the 1980s, "new musick" fell out of prominence and was replaced by the broad umbrella of "new wave" and "post-punk" interchangeably. Subsequently, "post-punk" became differentiated from "new wave" after their styles perceptibly narrowed. [53] [54] [55]

Legacy

A Sheffield fanzine produced by Martin Russian established in March 1979 entitled "New Musickal Excess" (NMX) would be named as a parody of the genre "new musick" and "New Musical Express" (NME). [56]

In 2019, "new musick" experienced a brief revival, spearheaded by Danish band the Foreign Resort. [57]

Futurist

Futurist (also known as futurist pop) is a style of music originally coined by Sounds magazine in the early 1980s to denote artists in the Leeds and Manchester new wave scenes who made use of synthesizers. Artists such as Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Soft Cell and Simple Minds would be labelled "futurist". [58] [59] In 1981, Sounds published several top futurist singles charts. [60] [58]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Worley 2017, p. 33.
  2. 1 2 Savage, Jon (26 November 1977). "New Musick" . Sounds. Retrieved 8 November 2025– via Rock's Backpages.
  3. ↑ Haddon 2020, pp. 43–44.
  4. 1 2 Cateforis 2011, p. 27.
  5. ↑ Reynolds, Simon (December 2001). "Post-Punk: Lubricate Your Living Room" . Sounds. Retrieved 18 November 2025– via Rock's Backpages.
  6. ↑ Haddon 2020, p. 55.
  7. ↑ Wilkinson 2016, p. 8.
  8. ↑ Haddon 2020, p. 42.
  9. ↑ Völker 2023, p. 99.
  10. 1 2 3 Haddon 2020, p. 43.
  11. 1 2 Wilkinson 2016, p. 1.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 Buckley 1995, p. 286.
  13. 1 2 Worley 2024, p. 29.
  14. ↑ Borthwick & Moy 2004, p. 120.
  15. 1 2 Haddon 2020, p. 44.
  16. ↑ Buckley 2012, pp. 153–155.
  17. ↑ Savage 1996, p. 121.
  18. 1 2 Lester 2009.
  19. ↑ Buckley 2005, p. 286.
  20. ↑ Buckley 2012, pp. 152–155.
  21. 1 2 3 4 Albiez & Pattie 2016, p. 94.
  22. 1 2 Buckley 1995, p. 287.
  23. ↑ Buckley 2012, pp. 155.
  24. ↑ Buckley 2012, pp. 204.
  25. ↑ Bennett & Stratton 2025.
  26. 1 2 3 4 Needs, Kris (March 1978). "Wire" . ZigZag. Retrieved 21 November 2025.
  27. 1 2 Needs, Kris (January 1978). "An Interview With Brian Eno" . ZigZag– via Rock's Backpages.
  28. ↑ Albiez & Pattie 2016, p. 95.
  29. ↑ Simpson, Dave; Hodgkinson, Will (2001-08-10). "Punk: How was it for you?". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2025-11-17.
  30. ↑ "From riots to royals - Jean-Jacques Burnel on 40 years with The Stranglers". Warrington Guardian. 2014-12-29. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
  31. ↑ "Strangled: Identity, Status, Structure And The Stranglers - Record Collector Magazine" . Retrieved 2025-11-17.
  32. ↑ Gorman 2022, p. 20.
  33. ↑ Savage 1991, p. 528.
  34. ↑ Reynolds 2005, p. 8.
  35. 1 2 3 4 Buckley 2012, p. 153.
  36. ↑ Gorman 2022, p. 182.
  37. ↑ Savage, Jon (November 2015). "Epiphanies: Devo" . The Wire. Retrieved 14 November 2025– via Rock's Backpages.
  38. ↑ Reynolds 2005, p. 13.
  39. ↑ Reynolds 2005, p. 17.
  40. ↑ Worley 2024, p. 95.
  41. 1 2 Westwood, Chris (20 May 1978). "Live Wire". Record Mirror . p. 47.
  42. ↑ Trowell 2020, p. 115.
  43. ↑ Wilkinson 2016, p. 32.
  44. ↑ Frith, Simon (30 September 1978). "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding". Melody Maker . p. 37.
  45. ↑ Red, Starr (6 September 1979). "Albums". Smash Hits . p. 24.
  46. ↑ Gittins 2004, p. 5.
  47. 1 2 Savage 1996q, p. 528.
  48. ↑ de Whalley, Chas (11 February 1978). "Power Pop part 1: Suddenly, Everything Is Power Pop!" . Sounds . Retrieved 15 November 2025– via Rock's Backpages.
  49. ↑ Gorman 2001, p. 233.
  50. 1 2 Wilkinson 2016, p. 52.
  51. ↑ Wilkinson 2016, p. 54.
  52. ↑ Haddon 2020, p. 41.
  53. ↑ Jackson, Josh (8 September 2016). "The 50 Best New Wave Albums". Paste . Archived from the original on 1 October 2017. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
  54. ↑ Larissa 2023, p. 37.
  55. ↑ Heylin 2007, p. 298.
  56. ↑ Worley 2024, p. 83.
  57. ↑ Dick, Chris (2019-02-04). "Track Premiere: The Foreign Resort 'Outnumbered'". Decibel Magazine. Retrieved 2025-11-21.
  58. 1 2 Buckley 2003, p. 939.
  59. ↑ Buckley 2003, p. 972.
  60. ↑ Buckley 2003, p. 285.

Bibliography

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